enviroblog

The Latest from EnviroBlog

After decades of debate, the Obama administration last week classified formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen, a label that is likely to advance regulatory steps to restrict this widely used hazardous chemical.

Did you think you were eating a carcinogen along with your favorite chicken sandwich last week? Probably not, but a new Food and Drug Administration study has found arsenic in chickens treated with 3-Nitro® (also known as Roxarsone), a commonly used, arsenic-based animal drug.

Pretty much all I knew about sunscreen growing up was that SPF was some measure of how much sunburn protection came out of the bottle. Hard to believe that back in the day, the great debate was "6 or 8," not 30 or 50. (or 110!) We even busted out the baby oil on occasion (oh, the teen years!).

Ever since EWG's 2007 report about BPA in food can linings was released, I've walked right past the canned food aisle in my grocery store. In fact, about a year ago, a bunch of EWG staffers challenged ourselves to go a full week eating no food from a can.

Every year about this time my friends want to me to tell them exactly which sunscreen to buy. They want the one that works the best to protect skin with the least toxic ingredients. And who can blame them?

Last year I cut small squares of foam from my sons' car seats, our glider rocker and my breastfeeding pillow, wrapped them in foil to prevent contamination and mailed them off to Duke University for chemical analysis.

U.S. pediatricians are putting their considerable muscle behind the calls for Congress to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a failed federal law that has exposed millions of children, beginning in the womb, to an untold number of toxic chemicals.

April was a busy month for the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania, especially for one company in particular - Chesapeake Energy Corporation. And that's saying a lot for one of the country's most active natural gas drilling companies.

In March, DuPont, the behemoth chemical company whose factories have polluted groundwater in several communities in West Virginia, Ohio and New Jersey, agreed to pay $8.3 million to provide water filters for 4,800 homes in southern New Jersey.

Medical experts will never cease searching for cures for the gravest illnesses that afflict people. But a growing consensus is forming in the medical and public health communities that preventing these disorders in the first place is a more urgent - and ultimately less costly - priority.

Around this time last year the health-conscious crew at KFC headquarters gave the American consumer the Double Down chicken sandwich - 540 calories of bacon and cheese with no veggies, smashed between slabs of fried chicken instead of buns.

The Water Research Foundation, an offshoot of the American Water Works Association of water utilities, has accused Environmental Working Group of informing utility customers about the presence of chromium-6, a suspected carcinogen, in their tap water. "Reckless and irresponsible," the foundation claims.

President Obama contends that natural gas drilling can help meet his goal of reducing U.S. imported oil consumption by a third by 2020. Yet, in a welcome change from his previous position, Obama recently acknowledged that drilling carries inherent risks. Obama told a March 30 assembly at Georgetown University,